THE CARIOGENICITY OF VARIOUS CORN DIETS IN THE RAT

¹ Indiana University School of Dentistry and Department of Chemistry, Bloomington, Ind.

The effects of different experimental diets were studied with regard to their ability to induce caries in the rat. The most effective diet for inducing and extending the carious lesion was one which contained 46 per cent corn grits and 19.5 per cent sucrose. A similar diet, except for the use of coarsely ground corn in place of corn grits and sucrose, reduced the average caries severity approximately 50 per cent. Three diets with identical constituents, but containing different types of corn, produced different caries pictures; the one with the largest and smallest particles produced about the same degree of caries, while corn grits, intermediate in size between the two, was more cariogenic. Increasing the amount of corn grits from 46 per cent to 64 per cent at the expense of sucrose did not increase caries. A greater number of lesions than usual were noted in the mandibular third molars, and an increase in the number of cavities was observed in the maxillary teeth in the animals on the sugar-containing diets. The lesions observed in the animals receiving the sucrose-containing diets were also different in size and character than those in the animals on a noncarbohydrate-containing diet.